As the world embraces the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, the amount of data generated accelerates exponentially. The question is, what do we do with all this data we’ve captured? The answer goes further than being able to store and manage it – companies need to also understand how to utilize it.

Connected product data is a gold mine of information. This data tells a narrative covering everything from the product location to health, use, maintenance, and more. As a result of the connected product, manufacturers can remotely monitor products to better understand how they’re functioning and how customers are utilizing them.

With advanced analytical capabilities, manufacturers can then turn these insights into action. For example, they can enhance product design and optimize the customer’s experience of the product. Through monitoring, manufacturers can know when products are failing and in need of repair or maintenance, and then alert the customer in a timely fashion. These offerings can also be bundled into new revenue streams, such as subscriptions to monitoring, alerts, and product personalization.

Of course, there are many challenges to this endeavor. The amount of data involved is beyond what many companies have the current ability to manage. Not only is it a massive amount of data to store, but also to organize into information that can tell a story and can be made actionable.

Cost is always a huge factor – the ability to not just store that amount of data but also organize and utilize it can be very limiting. Further, the complexity of that kind of project requires new skillsets and more people. Finally, security is always a main concern when handling data from customers.

Connected products offer a wealth of opportunities for manufacturers to improve their products and services, reduce costs, and generate new revenue streams. However, there are also challenges associated with managing and utilizing connected product data, such as the volume, complexity, cost, and security of the data.

At Perficient, our manufacturing expertise combined with our experts in data has been helping manufacturers strategize and take action on the data that’s at their fingertips from connected products. Bring our manufacturing expertise into your next project.